Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  Washington State University - Pullman

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  As new plant cells form they are surrounded by a rigid cell wall that holds them in place and provides a permanent structure. I am interested in finding regulators that define the shape of a new cell as it develops in a growing plant. As new cells are permanently fixed in place, we aim to understand how a plant is able to precisely position a new cell to create new organs. For example, what allows a plant to turn a cell into conductive tissue or flower petals, or stomata cells? I specifically look at cytoskeleton proteins that help form the scaffolding required to make the new cell and its shape.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I started growing a vegetable garden on my family farm and I started selling my produce at the local farmer's market when I was 21. I then became interested in fruit trees, but I wasn't good at caring for them. I decided to start my undergraduate career in horticulture. I began with basic biology and chemistry classes in college when I was 22. I was efficient in lab classes and the more I learned about molecular interactions the more I wanted to study sub-cellular plant life rather than horticulture. I decided to attend graduate school only 30 miles from my family farm. This way I can still tend my garden while I earn my PhD in molecular plant science.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is tough about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  Not every moment is an "Aha!" or "Eureka!". You must be willing to accept that all you may discover in a months time is 37 ways NOT to do an experiment. It can get frustrating during these times, but when the moment of discovery comes, the excitement will allow you to forget about the moments of frustration. Another tough thing is that the writing is harder. You may think that by choosing a science career you are escaping from writing, but the reading and writing becomes harder. Again with this, when you do write a good report or grant the feeling of accomplishment trumps the frustration.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  "Eureka!" moments and awesome equipment. I don't discover something daily, but when I do find something new, I am the only person in the world that knows it for a time. The equipment scientists have access to on a daily basis is remarkable. I get to use a Confocal microscope whenever I want. This microscope can take multiple images of different cell layers to reconstruct a 3-D image of a living cell. I once recorded an amazing video of a cell dividing; my heart was pounding the entire 50 minutes of recording. I think it feels like climbing a mountain; so few people will ever see or experience what you can as a scientist.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  (not set)

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Jalapeno Business Sharol A Schmidt Dec 11, 2017

Hi Robert

Quantitative data is something that can be measured specifically. For example, the height of your plants or the dry weight of your plants have an actual number quantity associated with the observation. Qualitative is more observational…

more

Hi Robert

Quantitative data is something that can be measured specifically. For example, the height of your plants or the dry weight of your plants have an actual number quantity associated with the observation. Qualitative is more observational and subjective. For example how green your plants are or even how curly your plant stems might be. What sorts of things are you interested in measuring in your experiment?

Sharol

Plantleander Sharol A Schmidt Nov 28, 2017

What colors have you chosen for your experiment? how are you exposing the plants the light? What kind of plants did you decide to go with?

Sharol

Jalapeno Business Sharol A Schmidt Nov 15, 2017

Hi Nathan, 

You can measure curly plants just by kind of stretching them out gently next to a ruler. If the plant is too curly to pull all the way straight, just straighten it as much as you can without breaking it. Make sure you include in…

more

Hi Nathan, 

You can measure curly plants just by kind of stretching them out gently next to a ruler. If the plant is too curly to pull all the way straight, just straighten it as much as you can without breaking it. Make sure you include in your observations that the plant was curly, so the measurement might not be exact. 

Sometimes I need to measure curly roots in the lab. I take a picture of the roots, and I make sure I include a ruler in the picture. Then I use a free computer program called imageJ to process the pictures. In image J, I draw a line on the ruler for a couple of centimeters and tell the program that the number of pixels in the line is equal to the number of centimeters I traced on the ruler. Then I can draw a line that traces the bending and curling roots. The computer tells me how many pixels the line is and I can convert it to centimeters to get an accurate length. 

ImageJ requires a little more effort than some computer programs out there, but it is free so that is what I use. 

Sharol